firman



2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

(No Model.)

L. B. FIRMAN- POLIGB TBLBGRAPHIG AND TELEPHONIG SIGNAL SYSTEM. No. 340,203.

Patented Apr. 20, 1886.

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-#Sheet 2.

L. B. P'IRMAN.

POLIGL TBLEGRAPHIG AND TELEPHONIG SIGNAL SYSTEM. No. 340,203. PatentedApr. 2o, 1886.

WITNEEEEE- .MENTR- y MMWUCW UNITED Smyrne 1 LEROY B. FIRMAN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO E. BRUCE CHAND- LER, AUSTIN DOYLE,"AND JOHN P. BARRETT, ALL OF SAME PLACE.

POLICE. TELEGRAPHIC AND TELEPHONIC SIGNAL SYSTEM.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 340,203, dated April 20, 1886.

Application filed luneld i881. Serial No. 36,830. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern: l

Be it known that I, LEROY B. FIRMAN, of Chicago, Cook county, State of. Illinois, have invented certain n'eW and useful Improvements in Police Telegraphic and Telephonie Signal Systems, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in police telegraphic and telephonie signal systems.

One branch of the improvement consists in connecting private houses and buildings with the police-circuits by telephone or by arbitrary call-signal devices, so that the occupant of the house may communicate directly with the police-station, keys of such houses o1' buildings being left at the police-station. Thus if a call is received from a dwelling the policeman answering the call takes the key of the house with him, and by means thereof is enabled to enter the house, and if burglars are at work therein to surprise them before they are aware that their presence is known.

The improvement further consists in the construction of the alarm or telephone boxes used in such systems, as fully hereinafter set forth.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l shows the electric circuits connecting a police-station with the various signal or call boxes and the private houses and buildings. Fig. 2 is a view of one of the signalboxes- Fig. 3 shows a modification of Fig. 2, and Fig. 4 is a detached interior view of the telephone-box placed in the sentry or signal box.

In Fig. 1,A represents a police-station, and B B are the Sentry-boxes or call-stations, and C C the private houses or buildings connected with the various lines emanating from the station A. The line-circuits are indicated in Fig. l, and as there are several of them they are represented by diierent kinds of broken lines. They cross each other and interlace in lmuch the same manner as do tire-alarm and districttelegraph lines, and for the same reason.

As already stated, the boxes B are in the form of Sentry-boxes. Fig. 2 illustrates one of them with the door swung open. They are provided with a locked telephone-box, D, the key whereof is supplied to the policeman.

Besides the telephone receiver and transmitter D and D2, this box has an ordinary arbitrary mechanical multiple-call device, D3, with its signal-giving lever d3 extended through the side of the box D, as shown, so that said lever may be pulled `by'a citizen as well as by a policeman. This signal may give notice to the central station that a force of men are needed at the box from which it comes; or it maybe used simply to attract the attention of the station-keeper to the telephone, so that he may receive more exact information through it from the patrolman. If the patrolman is pressed for time he may, instead of the telephone, use the arbitrary call service to ask forthe special kind of assistance required, as such service embraces a majority of the calls which the patrolman finds occasion to send. The construction of these arbitrary call boxes or devices is now well known and needs no description here. The Sentry-box door is closed by a trap-lock, d, of ordinary construction. The keys to open the door may be only in the possessionof the patrolman, or they may be deposited in the care of the occupants of adjacent buildings,and thus the turning in ofalarms be permitted to citizens as well as to members ofthe force;but before any citizen can withdraw the key after it has been inserted in the lock he must await the arrival of one of the force, who are supplied with releasing keys fitting the inside key-opening and used for the releasing of the door-keys. By this arrangement ofkeys and the use of this kind of a lock I avoid all dangeroffalse alarms and of malicious tampering with the telephone and signal devices. Each box B contains the usual batterynn., accompanying the telephone. The wires n are part ofthe circuit connecting the box with the police-station.

As before stated,the boxes B may be utilized as lamp-snpporters,and in such case it is desirable that the roof b of the box,or some portion thereof, be made of glass, so that rays from the lamp E may be admitted to the interior thereof'. In case the sidewalks are so narrow that a Sentry-box like that shown aty Fig. 2 would be too much of an obstruction, the construction shown at Fig. 3 may be adopted instead. This latter construction takes up but onehalf of the space occupied by the former,

as the building F, against which it is placed, forms one side of it. Thelamp may be placed above this box as well asthe other, and it may be illuminated by the lamp in the same Way also.

In the other feature, already mentioned, of the invention, and which may or may not be used in conjunction with the apparatus just described ,the houses or other privatebuildings are conneotedto the police-stations by the same lines as the sentry-boxes or by dilerent lines. In the case of these houses, keys by which admission to them may be obtained are left at the policestation, so that if a call for assistance is received from a house the policemen who answer the call may carry the key of that house with them and gain entrance by means thereof'. This is likely to be of benefitin preventing the escape of burglars. Sometimes,

too, this connection of the house with the station may be employed in cases of sudden sickness or like emergency. The keys left at the station I prefer to place under sea1,so that they will not be removed therefrom except when a call comes from the occupant of the house.

By keeping a patrol-wagon and horses at the station response may be made to calls from these Sentry-boxes and private houses in a very limited space of time. By means of a bell placed upon the Station the oiicers on duty,or any one of them, may be directed to go to the telephone to receive orders.

The Sentry-boxes and the private houses may be placed upon the same line, so as to save multiplication of circuits.

I claim- The Sentry telephone-box having a Vglass roof, in combination with a lamp supported above the box, substantially as specified.

LEROY B. FIRMAN.

Vitncsses:

I-I. M. MUNDAY, T. EVERETT BROWN. 

